2:44 (the middle part was tightened up and the entire final bit about "The Flying Doctor" was excised, assuming American audiences would be unfamiliar with this service; after the sound of the flying boomerang, the song goes back into the chorus and fades out). The US version first hit the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1962 and peaked at No. 21, (a rare pre-Beatles hit for a British artist in the US) for what would be Drake's only American chart appearance (oddly, yet another version turned up on an American LP release, which was the same length as the US 45 but again contained the line "black in the face"). The K-Tel compilation entitled "Looney Tunes" (K-Tel NU9140, 1976) contained the full 3:32 version, with "black in the face" included. The record also did well in Canada, reaching No. 3 there. Australian reaction At the time of its release, despite its less-than-respectful treatment of Aboriginal people, Australian record-buyers apparently had no problem with the original "black in the face" version. Musicologist David Kent has calculated that the song reached No. 1 there in December 1962, and a copy of the record has been archived by Music Australia. By 2015, however, times had changed, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) banned the song, after a listener complained that it was racist. The ABC apologized after its Hobart-based radio program, Weekends, played the song in September of that year, at the request of a listener. Following the complaint, the broadcaster said it has removed the track completely from its system and taken steps to ensure "this would not happen again". The ABC's Audience and Consumer Affairs Department released a statement that the error was due to staff "not being familiar with the track’s lyrics". The Worker reference The song is referred to in Drake's ITV sitcom The Worker. In the 1969 episode "Hello, Cobbler" (coincidentally, the only one to survive in a colour version), Charlie's eponymous character is hit on the head by a boomerang and hallucinates a bizarre Australian adventure (also "politically incorrect" due to its use of actors, including Drake himself, playing Aborigine characters in blackface makeup). When he wakes up he asks, "What happened?" and is told, "Something you've always wanted--your boomerang came back!" References External links Full lyrics 1961 singles Novelty songs 1961 songs Parlophone singles United Artists Records singles Song recordings produced by George Martin